The Visualising Australasia’s Soils project brings together soil data from both public and private sectors, on the fly, into an online web-mapping portal that allows you to find the best possible soil data for any place. The soil data custodians keep control of their data and set the rules under which the data is made available.

The first project meeting was held in February, with more than 30 participants from partner organisations attending. Some traveled from as far away as New Zealand, Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Canberra and Tasmania.

The workshop marked a very successful start to the project and was a valuable networking opportunity for all participants. The discussions were really useful, particularly in gaining feedback about what the grower groups’ interests and concerns are in sharing data, and the ways we need to accommodate this.

Building trust with grower groups and addressing fears of data misuse, disadvantages or penalties in sharing data. Having these groups advocate use of the portal because there is a clear, obvious benefit. Groups maintaining control over the sharing of their data.

Capturing narratives about the use and value of the portal and the extent to which it matches user needs.

A steering committee has been created for the project, comprising of members from universities, state agencies and farmer groups.

Next steps

The next steps for the project include the steering committee setting governance and stewardship procedures, working with grower groups, bringing some existing project data into the test portal. Social research to measure the impact of the portal is also being planned.